JOUY31

It should be very busy on the 13th and the 14th, fine on the 15th, unless I am mistaken.

stimpy

Don't you think the last weekend of August (25-26th) will be even busier? For the grand rentrée? I always seem to be coming back to France that weekend and CDG is always pretty darn busy.

bucknjeff

Thanks JOUY31 !!

haggis79

Having seen the new layout recently, there are several issues I wonder about:

- Why did they renumber the K, L and M gates starting at K21, L21 and M24, respectively? Why not just using K1, L1 and M1? Would that make it too easy to find one's gate? Even at the K gates they did not just a one-to-one change from Exx to Kxx...

- The transfer from 2G to 2E has become better, but is still cubersome (the bus keeps running around in circles, making the transfer time very long...).

- The transfer from 2E to 2G and 2F <-> 2G is still on the landside, making it very difficult (long walks from the plane to the bus station etc.). Generally, does AF just not care enough about their "regional" passengers to provide a more seamless connection?

- AFs hub is now at the very edge of CDG. When landing on the north runways coming from the east this leads to extremely long taxi times. Also, in which direction do they plan to expand in the future? Demolish 2G and replace it by a proper terminal?

Generally, my connections are much easier now compared to the times when it used to be "plane from NUE -> bus to 2D -> walk to 2E -> bus to H gates -> bus to plane". However, I'm still not sure if I wouldn't prefer the very old times of "plane from NUE -> bus to 2D -> walk to 2C -> board plane"...

JOUY31

No idea

Airside transfer from 2E to 2G, with passport check in 2G, is expected sometime before the end of the year. It should be a welcome improvement. No idea about any changes to transfer between 2F and 2G after October, when 2F2 reverts to Schengen flights only.

These changes are far in the future and are not expected before the first phase of CDG4, sometime around 2024 ... At that time, Air France may extend its operations by coming back into 2D, but 12 years is a lot of time for plans to change

Zembla

yes they do. My understanding at the DO was that immigration isnt't keen on an airside connection. Hence the cumbersome landslide connection.

stimpy

I'm having an interesting time at T1 today, in a positive way. Avoiding all the crush of crowds at T2, I'm flying KU to FCO rather than AF or AZ, not to mention for vastly less money. Business class check in was a breeze and I was happy to have it since the lines for economy were horrific. Then I saw the huge queue at the passport check, but there is an automated Access 1 here! There is no human agent. You just scan your BP and the gates open. I walked past roughly 200 people and straight to the police. No waiting! Then I went up to the Air France Première lounge which KU gives access to. It's not quite the same as La Première lounge in T2, but its a nice place with light and space, 18 year old Scotch and 1er Cru Chablis. ^

I was kind of dreading going to T1 today, but now I am very happy to be here. From leaving my room at the Hilton all the way to the AF lounge here was about 45 minutes. Those of you who know CDG will appreciate that sort of accomplishment!

haggis79

seems like not trying to go to the DO (as I am not flying as frequently any more as I used to) was one of my bigger mistakes this year...

well, back to topic: I guess the very best solution for 2G passengers would be if they extended the automated train that goes from 2E to S3 and S4 to 2G... I do realize that this will probably never happen, though.

stimpy

I'll report that there were automated Access #1 gates at the T1 gates too. Another big line bypassed. Thanks ADP!^

KQ321

This was also discussed at the CDG DO. Unsurprisingly, we strongly suggested that the train should be extended beyond S4 to 2G, to avoid the need for a bus journey when connecting to/from 2G.

While AF/ADP recognised that this would be a nice solution, I think they indicated that (due to costs and planning processes) it wasn't likely to happen any time soon....

Goldorak

I agree. And I often wonder if DGAC makes it intentional to give always the longest taxi times. I have the feeling that I "always" take-off and land on the northern runways, so you need at least 20 min of taxi time

Goldorak

Dear all
I had the pleasure to arrive at S4 yesterday morning arriving from JNB (A380). I was hoping to depart from there, to try the new AF lounge, but unfortunately I left from S3. But at least I tried the arrival circuit.
I was among the lucky ones to have discovered it, in the final stages of construction, during the CDG DO but it was nice to see it finished and clean of any construction (almost).

Positive aspects :
- very nice, modern, nice shops and restaurants seen from above (as those are in the departure area). About the restaurant, in the middle of the "main square", there is a nice seafood bar (specialized in smoked salmon and ... caviar !). They have the same in ORY west and it's very good, although a bit pricey. There is also a true Ladurée café (not just a booth selling macarons, as in the other terminals). Knowing the success Ladurée had in the other terminals, no doubt they'll make a killing with this facility.
- efficient transfer to main pier of 2E : the automatic shuttle runs every 2 minutes. Note that since the opening of S4, you do not take anymore the 1st shuttle arriving. Each platform is dedicated to one way (when you start from 2E main pier, the right side platform serves S3 and S4, while the train on the left platform is only bringing pax from S3 & S4 and do not take any pax from 2E main pier - it goes back empty to S4 to bring back pax)

On the negative side,
- just after disembarking from the jetway, the escalator was not working. Bad for something completely new and when a packed A380 is arriving. Of course this is minor and will be fixed rapidly.
- the main negative aspect is linked to something we were all fearing : main 2E infrastructures are becoming extremely crowded. Immigration was crowded but police booths were well staffed (close to 10 booths). PARAFES is becoming too popular (20 pax before me) and ADP needs absolutely to install more gates as 3 is not enough. Accès N°1 lane was actually quicker than PARAFES... Delivery of bags was long (as it's a long way from S4), but at least priority bags were delivered the 1st (miracle !) . Taxi line was extremely long (starting inside the terminal at the central area where people meet with arriving pax). And this was not due to a lack of taxis (they were arriving constantly) but just due to the very high number of pax. I was already queuing for 15 min (so half-way) when I thought that I should have crossed to 2F and the a taxi from there.

So I hope I'll have the opportunity to depart from there soon

haggis79

AFAIK, the choice of runways somewhat depends on where your plane is coming from/going to. Destinations to which the track from CDG leads to the north (all of North America, for example), are usually served from the northern runways. An exemption to this rule appears to be regional traffic since the opening of 2G - they appear to almost always use one of the southern runways (presumably due to way shorter taxi times?)

bucknjeff

Thanks for the nice review. Arriving there Saturday (from ORD) and hope we park at S4.

ajs123

I had the pleasure to arrive at S4 this weekend at noon from LAX on also A380. The flight was very pleasant, the arrival not so. After landing we took what appeared to be a victory loop around CDG only to arrive to an unstaffed gate M44 which added a 15minute wait. I think the FAs were more exasperated than the pacs, one complaining that he does not recall when such thing did not happen... Eventually only one jet bridge was used to deplane the whole plane! In an earlier post I complained that there are no moving walkways in the boarding area. However there is a very short one (approximately 50 m long) right after the shopping area. Though better than nothing, but not sufficient imho. I was transiting to 2F and for which only a bus was suggested. The bus boarding was handled by one ADP security person who was quite overburdened with this task as it was quite not clear to pacs trying to get to 2A, B, C, D, and F which bus to take (red or blue). Whenever a bus arrived it stopped far away from the terminal door and you couldn't see well which one it is and she just kept shouting in lovely french accent "2F, 2F" which apparently was not so endearing to those waiting. Only one door was used to embark both busses. She did not check any boarding cards. Certainly there is room for improvement in embarking buses. For instance, having an electronic board above the exit door with notes on which typeof a bus connecting to which terminals is coming in how many minutes.

I decided to stop at the arrivals lounge and did not take the direct bus to 2F which serves only this terminal. Instead, I took the bus which stopped at gate K, and then at 2C. No waiting at passport control as there were no lines. The airport was less packed than I feared - judging on seeing 2C, 2F and M gates.

Two side notes 1) the bus announcement would be clearer if they dropped the bienvenue - welcome that they use to start every announcement.
2) it was my impression that many people were quite confused about gates K,L, M and terminal 2E...